Police Jury to improve Kingston Rd. ahead of school

(The following is used with permission of the Bossier Press Tribune. Thanks to Amanda Simmons for recognizing the police jury/school board partnership.)

The Bossier Parish
Police Jury will be making improvements to the Kingston Road corridor ahead of
the new Benton High School opening next fall.

Bossier
Parish Engineer Butch Ford said there are four areas to address — Airline
Drive, Fairburn Avenue, Kingston Plantation and Highway 3. Their first project
is to add a traffic signal at Fairburn Avenue, which they plan to do this
summer.

“Traffic
signals are not hard to install,” Ford said. “I think the school board wants to
go ahead and put those in now and I’m ok with that.”

Ford
said they also plan to add a southbound right turn lane from Kingston onto
Airline Drive and turn lanes at the entrance of Kingston Plantation.

“I’ve
got the project designed and we’ve already acquired the right of way,” Ford
said. “Before next summer, we’re going to let this project. These lanes will help
the traffic flow instead of waiting for people to turn into the subdivision.”

The
parish is also working with LADOTD to extend the existing southbound left turn
lane on Highway 3 to accommodate more vehicles turning onto Kingston Road.

Ford
says these road improvement projects should be completed before the start of
the 2019-2020 school year.

“As
soon as we have the plans ready and the school board gets ready, we’ll get
started on the work,” Ford said. “We have to make sure the traffic concerns are
addressed to keep people safe. We’re trying to do our best now to plan for the
future.”

The
projects are part of an agreement with the Bossier Parish School Board and the
Bossier Parish Police Jury. Keith Norwood, Supervisor of Planning and Construction,
said the board allocates money when building larger projects for off-site
improvements, such as water, sewer and streets. Improving existing streets is
included in that as well.

The
school system collaborated with the Police Jury when they built Kingston
Elementary, Norwood said, and are working with them again on the new Benton
High School, the largest project to date with Bossier Schools’ 2012
construction bond program.

“We
gave them our share of money to improve Kingston Road when Kingston [Elementary]
was built,” Norwood explained. “That included widening the road and putting in
turn lanes. We’ve funded a second traffic impact study to see what
recommendations are made with the new high school coming and the board has
approved the police jury actually bidding out the work.”

Norwood
said there’s an “inherent savings” by doing the projects this way. The approved
agreement also includes overlaying tracks at Bossier High School and Preston
Crownover Stadium in south Bossier.

The
new Benton High School is a $45.5 million project and will be located adjacent
to Kingston Elementary, specifically at 449 Fairburn Avenue and Tiger Pride
Drive. The school will be built on 70 acres and will accommodate as many as
1,450 students initially. There will be additional space on campus to serve a
student enrollment of 1,650 if necessary.

Parish
Administrator Bill Altimus said he was approached by Bossier Schools in regards
to some property around Kingston Elementary. They plan to use two acres on the
south side of campus and eight acres to the west of campus along Willow Chute
Bayou to build outdoor recreational areas. The plan is to develop pavilions
with seating areas, a walking trail and open green space for recreational
activities (football, baseball, etc.).

Altimus
said the jury may consider playground equipment later on, but not in the
initial development. Both areas would be maintained by the parish.

“I
think it’s a great opportunity to do something really good for our quality of
life,” Altimus said. “I know this will be very popular in that area, especially
with the continued development there.” Paperwork is being done now for the
cooperative endeavor agreement between the parish and Bossier Schools. Once
that’s done, Altimus said they will work the parks into their schedule.

“The
two acre park would be done first, then they would work on the eight acres,” he
added. “It’s very beautiful there. It’s a great, shady spot for a park and
walking trail.”
Altimus thanked the Bossier Parish School Board for the opportunity to work
together on the project.

“It’s
a win for them and certainly a win for us,” he said. “It’s an ideal location to
where the school can use the park as well if they need it.”